Special Religious Education and Ethics review FOI - February edition

It's the first of the month, which means it's freedom of information (FOI) request time!

Late last year I made an FOI request to the NSW Department of Education, seeking the status of the Review of Special Religious Education and Special Education in Ethics in NSW government schools. This review was opened for public comment in mid-2015. A costly independent report was commissioned shortly after, and it was received in March 2016. In November, I asked the how the report was coming along.

It's not.

I've detailed the highs and lows of the initial request in blog posts (1), (2) and (3). In short: "The recommendations [of the report] are under consideration. At this stage, there is not a specified timeline for release. As a result, the review is not yet publically [sic] available."

I'm going to keep asking for the report on the first of every month until the department publishes the results on the relevant page of its website.

Why monthly? Because twenty working days is the allowable timeframe for a public authority to respond to an FOI request!

I just made my February request through Right to Know, which forwards requests to the relevant organisation and makes FOIs easy and searchable. You can read my most recent request here. Any follow-ups will appear on that page.

Strap in; it's going to be a long and uneventful ride.

UPDATE: 3/2/2017

Surprise!

"The report is not yet publically available. [...] The recommendations from the 2015 Review of SRE and SEE in NSW Government Schools are still under consideration. There is not a specified timeframe for release."